LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Military Cross.
The New Decoration for Special Gallantry of Officers. Already several Army Chaplains have won it.[ToList]
INTRODUCTION[ToC]
The story I am about to tell is one of surpassing interest. It is the story of Christian life, work, and heroism among our troops at the front.
The soldier is easily moved to good or to evil. In the past evil influences have been more powerful and more numerous than influences for good. Our soldiers had been drawn, for the most part, from classes outside all churches and Christian influences, and the wet canteen had been the most popular institution in the Army.
For the last twenty-five years, however, the situation has been altering for the better. The day-school has done its work, and a free education has accomplished splendid things for the working-man. The Sunday-school, too, has extended its scope and has of late years been more efficient than ever before. There has been a steady levelling up of the people, and the Army has risen with the rest. Said a soldier to me during the South African war: "They think we are the same as we used to be, but we are no longer the scum of the earth."
Slowly and surely the work done outside the Army has been reflected in the Army. The Army Temperance Association, the Soldiers' Christian Association, the Soldiers' Homes provided by the churches, and other uplifting organisations have found that they were working on soil to some extent prepared. The soldier has responded readily to the appeals made, and the Soldiers' Homes have become as popular as the canteens, and often more so. A Soldiers' Home in a camp has meant at once a change for the better. The senior officers have recognised this fact, and have gladly welcomed every Christian effort on behalf of their men.
I remember, when Bordon and Longmoor camps were formed, with what joy my colleagues and I were welcomed by the officer in command. Everything he had was placed at our disposal, a hut was apportioned to us, and we furnished it, for the most part, from furniture belonging to the camp. Everything was very rough in those days, and the roads well-nigh impassable; but when we got there what a welcome we had! The late Colonel Gordon, R.E. (nephew of Gordon of Khartoum), lent us his piano and his wife often played it for us.
I was standing on Petersfield Station platform one night looking sadly at a group of drunken and half-drunken soldiers, when a non-commissioned officer came up, and, after saluting, said, "They would not be like that if you had a Home for them, sir."
By and by it was not only a hut we had, but a permanent Soldiers' Home, and when it was opened by the Earl of Donoughmore, it became crowded at once. Brigadier-General Campbell stood our friend through all those difficult days, and rejoiced as much as we did in the prosperity of the Home.
It must be remembered also that for many years past there has been an increasing leaven of Christian men in the Army. The Home to which I have just referred could not have been the power it became had it not been for this. I remember a lance-corporal who, so far as he knew, was the only Christian in his regiment. He used to go out among the solemn pines at night and pray for his comrades. Soon another joined him there, and many another, and by the time the Home was opened we had a company of Christian men ready to work among their fellows.
During my ministry in Aldershot I saw this illustrated in much larger measure, and the Christian men were, all of them, Christian missionaries working with great success.
I have already told the story of Christian work during the South African war in my book "From Aldershot to Pretoria." The story is one for which all the churches may well thank God. Though that war was child's play compared with this, the higher war waged—the war for Christ and His Kingdom—was one of constant victory. Large numbers of men gave themselves to Christ, and when the war was over remembered the vows they had vowed to Him.
Now we have witnessed a mobilisation of Christian forces, such as would have been impossible hitherto. The Chaplaincy Department has developed into a great and well-organised agency for good. Over two hundred chaplains are already at the front, and the ministers of all the churches are busily at work in the camps at home. All the old Christian and temperance organisations are to the fore, only developed out of all former knowledge, and the Young Men's Christian Association has astonished and delighted the whole Christian world.
The Christian men in the Army—more numerous before the war broke out than they had ever been—are carrying on their noble work and are constantly receiving additions to their ranks.
We have known for years what Thomas Atkins was like—susceptible as a child. I have heard sobs all over the room while picture slides of a little child's story, such as "Jessica's First Prayer," were being shown. But what will the new army be like? Will it be as susceptible as the old? Will the men still thrill when the Gospel story is told? They are different men—men drawn from all classes, actuated by a common purpose to save their country. Will they think only of that, or will their hearts also be "strangely warmed" by tidings of their Saviour's love? Already the answer comes to us "Yes." Never before has such deep seriousness fallen upon our men, and in their quiet moments, and even amid the stress of battle, thoughts have turned to Christ and hearts have been surrendered to Him.
"The truth of the matter is," wrote the Bishop of London, in the Times, after his visit to the front at Easter, "that the realities of war have melted away the surface shyness of men about religion; they feel they are 'up against' questions of life and death; and I have heard of more than one censor who has for the first time realised the part religion bears in a soldier's life by censoring the innumerable letters home in which the writers ask for the prayers of their relations or express their trust in God."
It is the purpose of the following pages to tell, so far as it is possible, in these early months of the war, something of the Christian work attempted and accomplished among our men at the front and at sea, and to answer the questions I have just asked.